John MacDonald: The springtime chill in the air for Labour

It was a beautiful sunny morning. But, even though it looked warm, it was still pretty chilly.

And when Chris Hipkins looked out the window at his Christchurch hotel this morning he would’ve thought the same. That it looked like a beautiful spring day. But, as soon as he walked outside, he would’ve realised that it wasn’t and there was still a chill in the air.

Except for him, it wouldn't have been just the fresh air sending a shiver up the spine. He’s also had the fright of his political life with that disastrous poll result that came out last night.

He’s putting on the happy face. But no one can deny - based on last night’s Newshub poll - that Labour is in freefall.

That the bread and butter is looking more like toast and butter.

Labour is down to 26.8%. National is up at 40.9%. And on the preferred Prime Minister front, Hipkins is now level-pegging with Christopher Luxon.

In the last few weeks, it was that preferred Prime Minister ranking that had given Hipkins a bit of an edge over Luxon. A bit of an edge. Not anymore, though.

The question in my mind about this latest poll result, is how much it reflects genuine anger with Labour’s leadership over the past few years versus people just being sick of the sight of Labour.

I’m not angry with them. But I’m certainly bored of them. Which is probably how it was always going to be considering how much they were in our face day-in, day-out during COVID.

And Labour itself looks bored too. Chris Hipkins and his ministers look tired, worn-out and over it. They look like a third-term government. Not a second-term government. And they don’t just look tired and over it. They come across as arrogant, as well.

Arrogance. That’s why Chris Hipkins has been let down time-and-time again this year by his ministers. Arrogance. That’s why, when he was on Newstalk ZB this morning, he didn’t know anything about his Northcote MP Shanan Halbert being in hot water over his election fliers.

When he was asked, Hipkins said he knew nothing about it. And when I heard him say that, I thought that’s what arrogance sounds like. That’s what someone who is being failed by his team time-and-time again sounds like.

That’s what someone who is over it sounds like.

And then there’s Labour’s election policies. At best, they’re half-hearted, cobbled-together. Or they’re completely cynical.

GST off fruit and veggies. We know, don’t we, that not even Labour’s finance guy thinks it’s a good idea. In fact, we know that Grant Robertson thinks it’s a complete dog of an idea.

And we’ve already worked out that, if this happened, it would only be a few months before we’d have no idea whether we were paying less because of no GST. So that’s a half-baked, half-hearted policy if ever there was one.

Then there’s the cynical policy that came out last week, promising 300 new frontline cops if they get back into government.

Three months ago, Labour thought 1530 more frontline cops and 270 more back office cops was all we needed. Just weeks out from the election, though, it thinks we need to top that up with another 300. So cynical.

So cynical. So arrogant. And so tired. And that’s why it’s now polling like a government heading for oblivion.

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